A love of Hip Hop expressed in Piskor’s beloved comics medium.
I recognized many years back, from it being serialized on Boing Boing, that Hip Hop Family Tree was something very significant. And, the more I loosely followed Ed Piskor’s career, I recognized the deep dive passion he had for certain subjects, most importantly, classic comic book figures. In time, Piskor would team up with Marvel Comics, along with Jim Rugg and Tom Scioli, to each create their own takes on Marvel legends with the Grand Design series. Piskor did his take on X-Men; Rugg did his take on The Hulk; Scioli did his take on The Fantastic Four. Quite honestly, the whole Grand Design series came out during one of my draw downs on superheros. It’s only now, in retrospect, that I can turn to these titles with the best sense of appreciation. And so that brings me back to Hip Hop Family Tree. At a time when the comics community is in tumult over the death of Ed Piskor, it’s with a heavy heart that a reader can go back and experience what is, undoubtedly, Piskor’s highest achievement.
Freestyle Love Supreme at Joe’s Pub. (photo credit: Kevin Yatarola)
Pivot, Participant Media’s cable network presents an original special, an evening with the hip-hop improv group, FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME on Saturday, March 8 at 10PM ET/PT. The all-new half-hour special brings a national audience into New York City’s celebrated venue, Joe’s Pub, to experience the eponymous improv troupe’s uber-buzzy, high-energy live show from award-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail, the creators of the Tony and Grammy award-winning musical, “In The Heights.” This first-time ever TV special will be taped in front of a live audience just two days prior to premiere. More details here.
Lin-Manuel-Miranda
Thomas Kail
Anthony Veneziale
It is an honor to get to interview the talented creators of Freestyle Love Supreme: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, and Anthony Veneziale. As Lin-Manuel says, Freestyle Love Supreme was taking shape at the same time that all three of them were working together on “In The Heights.” Freestyle was Anthony’s brainchild and he and Lin-Manuel were having fun with it. Then Thomas Kail came along and helped give shape to what has become an ongoing performance that has won over audiences. It’s all about participation as the audience provides the topics for the show.
Dubbed by The New York Times as “Masters in the art of Freestyle rhyme,” Freestyle Love Supreme uses rap to spin audience suggestions into fully-realized musical numbers. In addition to Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Freestyle Love Supreme” also stars Utkarsh Ambudkar, Anthony Veneziale, Chris Sullivan, Bill Sherman, Chris Jackson and Arthur Lewis. The show is created by Thomas Kail and Anthony Veneziale.
Pivot TV is all about its audience as it has fully demonstrated with Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s popular “Hit Record.” You can now add to that, this original special from Freestyle Love Supreme.
Just click the link below to listen to the podcast interview:
Visit Freestyle Love Supreme here and Pivot TV here. And watch the Freestyle Love Supreme special on Saturday, March 8 at 10PM ET/PT.
Miley Cyrus’s twerking at the VMA Awards gala event this last Sunday is a bit of pop culture that’s hard to digest but might be devoured by a movie like “Spring Breakers.” In this movie, we find Selena Gomez, playing the role of Faith, in a much more acceptable expression of youthful rebellion. It could be interesting to get director Harmony Korine’s take on Miley Cyrus. Most likely, he would not be passing any judgment. He would probably be fascinated by the spectacle and how it might work into a story. That is the sort of thinking behind “Spring Breakers,” which recently became available for home entertainment.
